Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Darrin's Robot Knees Update - 1 Month Post-Op!

Today we had an appointment with Dr. Ghose for Darrin's 1-Month Post-Op appointment. He passed with flying colors! He no longer has to go to physical therapy appointments, he can continue to do his excercises on his own.

Darrin is walking around our block every other day or so as part of his therapy. He now no longer needs the walker, or any aid for that matter; unless he is going up or down stairs. His recovery has been absolutely incredible, mind, body, and spirit!!!

Now that he has been excercising daily, and not eating as much, he has lost over 30 pounds! He is going to try to start working again as well. His first task will be to sift through about 2,000+ e-mails. So I wouldn't expect any e-mails back from him for a few days.

Although Darrin has physically been able to move, excercise, and get around, he is still on pain medication. It doesn't seem to effect him too much, until it wears off, boy then we sure know it! Because of that he is still unable to drive or be left to his own devices for too long. He also tires extremely easily, needing more than 12 hours of sleep each night plus a nap.

This is a picture of how Darrin's knees have healed. Boy it is amazing what our bodies are capable of after such a major surgery!

These are snapshots of Darrin's X-rays. The first one is looking at him from the front. So his right knee is on your left side. That is the one that required more extensive reconstruction, so the spacer between is much thicker, as there was less bone left to work with.

These are side views of his knees while bending. What the doctor was looking for was spaces between the bone and prosthesis. There is none. Also, he physically twisted Darrin's leg to make sure the prosthesis was holding, and it is just right.

Left knee side view

Right knee side view

We still have a lot of work to do to keep Darrin healing, excercising, and weaning off of the pain pills. It will take time, but he is showing tremendous progress so far! Thank you for all of your prayers, they are certainly helping!